1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to meat tenderizer apparatus of the type wherein a piece of meat is tenderized by passing it through a top and bottom set of rotary serrated knives, the bottom set being carried on a fixed rotating shaft, and the top set carried on a spring urged floating shaft.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The tenderizing or massaging of meat such as boneless ham, pork pieces, and beef or poultry pieces of irregular shape is difficult to accomplish with commonly available tenderizing equipment.
The usual method of tenderizing meat is to pass the piece of meat between one or more sets of rotary knives that are carried on shafts having fixed center locations. This structure works satisfactorily on flat pieces of meat of uniform thickness but does not operate satisfactorily on pieces of meat of irregular shape, which pieces can vary in thickness from front to back and from side to side.
Examples of available machines are shown in the U.S. patents to E. W. Bridge, Jr., U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,823,441; S. S. Stein et al., 3,222,713; W. Swift, 1,982,487; J. P. Spang, 2,279,071; F. H. Vogelsang, 3,716,893; and Lobiondo, 3,644,125.
The apparatus of my invention is useful for tenderizing of pieces of meat of flat or irregular shape, has none of the disadvantages of the prior apparatus, and provides may advantages.